By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA, Sep 19 (IPS) - Military tribunals that have tried serious cases
of murder and kidnapping in the last few weeks in Cuba have opted for
life sentences or 30-year prison terms instead of the death penalty,
which has not been applied in this country in more than four years.
The de facto moratorium has placed Cuba in a more flexible position with
regard to the controversial issue, expected to be on the agenda of the
United Nations General Assembly's 62nd session, which opened Tuesday.
The London-based global rights watchdog Amnesty International reported
that the European Union Council of Ministers decided in June to present
a resolution seeking an international moratorium on the death penalty, a
step towards the abolition of capital punishment worldwide.
"The de facto moratorium is good news," Elizardo Sánchez, an activist
with the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation
(CCDHRN), told IPS.
The CCDHRN regularly reports on human rights in Cuba, particularly
political prisoners and the death penalty, based largely on testimony
and information provided by the family members of prisoners.
A report by the dissident group noted Wednesday that the trial of young
recruits who deserted from the army last April and tried to hijack a
plane to go to the United States led to two life sentences and three
sentences of 30, 25 and 15 years.
The CCDHRN reported that the sentences were handed down last week,
although the trial took place Aug. 24-26.
According to the report, the Western Military Tribunal in Havana gave
life sentences to Sergeants Yoán Torres, 21, and Leandro Cerezo, 20,
while sentencing 19-year-old Sergeant Karel de Miranda to 30 years,
25-year-old Corporal Alaín Forbes to 25 years, and civilian Ridel
Lescaylle, 31, to 15 years.
In a statement distributed to foreign correspondents, Sánchez said the
CCDHRN sees it as positive that Torres, the only one of the recruits who
is 21 years old (the minimum age for the death penalty), was not
sentenced to die by firing squad.
The dissident group's report, which did not specify the charges of which
the five defendants were found guilty, stated that they were "convicted
for the events that culminated in a bloody, frustrated attempt to hijack
a commercial passenger plane at the Havana airport."
An Interior Ministry statement issued on May 3 indicated that three
armed conscripts doing their two years' military service had deserted
from their army unit on Apr. 29, killing another conscript on guard
duty, Yoendris Gutiérrez, and wounding an unnamed soldier in the process.
The photos and full names of Torres, Forbus and Cerezo were later
circulated by the police.
One of the three deserters was arrested and "revealed that their aim was
to leave the country illegally." The other two hijacked a public city
bus, with several passengers on board, and sped to the domestic flights
terminal of the José Martí International Airport, the Interior Ministry
added.
At the airport, "the murderers killed with four shots one of the
hostages, Lieutenant Colonel Víctor Ibo Acuña Velázquez of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces, who despite being unarmed, tried to prevent
the terrorist action," said the communiqué, which did not mention the
participation of a civilian.
In an earlier trial, held in June in Santiago de Cuba, 847 km east of
Havana, another military tribunal handed down a life sentence to a
recruit and an inmate, as well as 30-year sentences to two other
recruits, said Sánchez, who explained that he was informed of the case
by family members of the accused.
The sentenced soldiers, who were working as prison guards, had staged a
revolt on Dec. 20 at the El Manguito prison near Santiago, and two
military officers were killed in the process. Official reports on the
incident are unavailable, said Sánchez.
In his opinion, the recruits were "technically" eligible for the death
penalty in both cases, and the sentences they received show that "the de
facto moratorium" in place since early 2003 is still in effect.
In April 2003, 11 armed individuals seized a ferry with dozens of
passengers on board, with the aim of defecting to the United States. In
a summary trial, three of the defendants, identified as the ringleaders,
were sentenced to death, and were immediately executed by firing squad.
The incident was part of a spate of hijackings of boats and planes by
people attempting to defect to the United States. The Cuban government
accused the U.S. of hatching a "sinister plan (to cause) provocation."
The government defends the death penalty as a judicial weapon that can
be used to defend the country from external attack and potential
internal activities aimed at destroying the state. It is also maintained
to protect the population from the most heinous crimes.
"The possible abolition of capital punishment in Cuba would be linked to
a cease in the policy of hostility, terrorism and economic, commercial
and financial warfare to which its people have been subjected for over
40 years by the United States," the Cuban Foreign Ministry said in a
message to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2004.
The current General Assembly session will also vote for the 16th time on
a Cuban resolution against the U.S. embargo of Cuba, which according to
the Cuban government has caused 89 billion dollars in direct damages to
the island since 1962.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque announced Tuesday that during
the General Assembly session, he would hold "exploratory talks" with the
European Union troika, representing the past, present and future EU
presidencies.
It is not known, however, whether the EU initiative against capital
punishment will be included on the list of issues to be discussed.
In Cuba, the death penalty is applicable to a number of crimes if
aggravating factors are present, although it cannot be applied in the
case of people under 21 or to women who were pregnant at the time the
crime was committed or when the sentence is handed down.
In practice, the death sentence has never been applied against a woman
since the Jan. 1, 1959 triumph of the Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro.
According to Amnesty International, the United States is the only
country in the Americas to carry out the death penalty since 2003. And
only six countries -- Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Pakistan, the United States and
China -- were responsible for 91 percent of all executions carried out
in 2006. (END/2007)
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